When participating in outdoors activities and on numerous other occasions, a person's shoes may get wet. Generally speaking, wet shoes are not desirable. Such wet shoes are uncomfortable for the wearer and may lead to shoe shrinkage, foot blisters, and other problems. In addition, shoes are often made, at least in part, from leather which becomes damaged and unattractive if exposed to excessive moisture for extended periods of time. Furthermore, the specialty shoes worn by outdoors enthusiasts, such as athletic shoes, golf shoes, boots, and the like, are expensive. Thus, persons having wet shoes generally want such shoes dried so that the shoes will be available for future activities and will remain in a good and attractive condition for as long as possible.
Wet shoes may be left to dry on their own. However, this often provides an undesirable solution to the problem of wet shoes because the shoes tend to dry too slowly. In other words, with this shoe-drying technique, shoes are often still wet when they are next worn. Additionally, if the shoes tend to get wet often, they soon experience leather damage and become unattractive. While this shoe-drying technique might be acceptable in dryer climates, it clearly fails to provide an acceptable solution in wetter climates. Consequently a need exists for an apparatus which aids in the drying of shoes and like articles.
Various forms of dryers are potentially available for use in drying shoes. However, such conventional dryers do not adequately serve the drying needs of shoes and like articles. For example, conventional clothes dryers often operate at high temperatures which may damage leather, rubber, and plastic portions of shoes. Furthermore, such dryers generally fail to protect against excessive dryness for each article within the dryers. In addition, such conventional dryers use a rotating barrel or tub within which articles are placed for drying. The rotation of this barrel causes collisions between the articles being dried therein and with the barrel itself. While such rotation advantageously mixes the articles so that they dry uniformly and expeditiously, it is not acceptable for shoes and like articles. Such articles would become damaged by the collisions. This damage would be ruinous in the case of golf and other sporting shoes that have cleats.
Alternatively, ovens may serve as dryers. Generally speaking, an oven merely heats the interior space of the oven and does not impart motion to the oven's contents. While the mere heating of an oven's interior may have a drying effect on the oven's contents, this type of drying is not acceptable for use in connection with shoes and like articles. Either the oven's heat must be raised to excessive levels in order to accomplish drying in an acceptable time frame, or an excessive period of time is consumed in order to accomplish drying while maintaining the articles at an acceptably low temperature. Furthermore, conventional ovens fail to protect against excessive dryness and fail to dry articles uniformly.